Nice clear pictures Brian, lovely to see all that shiney metal before the paint goes on!! Somehow gives "one" an appreciation of all the machining that has gone on to get to this stage!! You'll be catching up with Lynn, while she's down south, sorting out everyone in Daventry!!! Keep up the good work. Regards,Tony

Looks good buddy, what colour will the crank be.................. don't know can't guess tell me, will look impressive when finished, a bit like Knight Rider, should call you Michael or if you are from France Michelle, are you going to have a red LED on the front

So, as I am in my hotel room in South Germany with a reasonable wireless connection, lets see if I can bring my build thread up to date!!!

I have recently had kit's 22 and 23 so lots of heavy gears to lift, and with my back too.

Dry run of the RH crankshaft gears saw no issues apart from the usual deburring to do, all fits well - just need to fit the third gear ring with the keyways once I finish off the valve gear asembly and strip it down to paint/powder coat the crank then it will go in for good with the third gear ring pushed on tightly with the keys.

Had a lot more frustration with the second shaft and the hub cap. The square on the RH end of the second shaft was rough where the side of the cutter had left a rough finish as if it was done in one cut rather than with a smoothing second pass. This caused the hub cap not to be square when the screw was tightened in the end. This had the result of making the LH end of the second shaft off centre. When the hub cap was bolted to the gear train with the second shaft in place, the end of the second shaft was a good 10mm off centre to the LH side bearing, it was like our dog's tail wagging when it can see you have some leftovers.

A closer inspection with the square showed the extent of the problem so I set about the edges of the square on the second shaft with fine files to get it more accurate which I did. I had it so that I could get the LH end of the second shaft through the bearing and turn the whole thing. It was only when the hub cap centre screw was fully tightened that showed there was still a small error. I took the second shaft/hub cap assmebly to STW last week and Steve kindly set it up in the old fashioned (not CNC) lathe holding the second shaft and took a light skim off the back of the hub cap. When I got home and fitted it all was well.

It was this assembly that bit me when lapping in the crankshaft bearings. The second shaft gear train was a useful lever to rotate the crank as some of you will have no doubt found out by now. Anyway, by sliding the 1st gear pinion onto the end of the crank and engaging it in the 1st gear on the second shaft it was possible to get many turns of the crank from little effort. However, I was doing it with gloves on with rubberised palms as my hands were aching from trying to turn the crank using the webs. On one pull I got a little close to the 1st gear pinion on the crank and momentum plus the grip of the gloves got my finger in the gear teeth. After initially thinking no damage was done as my gloves looked fine, I took my glove off to find a lump of flesh hanging off my pinkie and the blood was starting to flow

I intend to have the hub cap plus the gear centre hub gloss black, just leaving the second shaft gear rings in shiny metal. Also the centre of the second shaft drive pinion will be gloss black. This will all be powder coated so there will be a lot of masking to do when we strip the crank, gears and motion.

The bit that bites!!!

Last week the latest kit 23 was collected and I set about this at the weekend while recovering from a few days of man flu. In order for the three pinions to fit and rotate there was some filing of the apertures in the diff centre to do as the pinions caught the corners in a couple of places. This was described as a possibility in the instructions so no surprises there, 30 minutes with a file and all was well. Bushes pressed in or retained by bearing fit depending on individual clearances.

I also picked up the additional packing shims as they had just arrived in stock. I found that one of the two shims was only fractionally thinner than the one supplied with the kit, maybe 0.2mm. One was 1.5mm and one was 2.0mm. I initially ended up using both of the extra shims instead of the one that came with the kit however it did feel a little to loose between the pinions and the inneer bevel. Using one of the thickest shims had the rumble effect as the pinion teath climbed the side of the beyel teeth. However, as Tony pointed out in the thread about this kit, if you run the pinions just over the outside edge of the pinion they run smoother and he has made som small spacers to fit between the bottom of the pinions and the diff centre to ensure the pinions run as far up the bevel gears as possible.

I found some 1mm thick aluminium sheet hidden under my bench and so I made a shim from it. As a result, when fitted with the 2mm shim making a total of 3mm it does give a good setting with a smooth running diff apart from the odd time when one of the pinions presumably slides down it's axle towards the centre of the diff as it gets towards the highest point of the diff rotation. It will be interesting to try this set up with both wheels on and the drive piece on the RH side so that the wheels are fixed and the gap between the wheels is fixed. I may make three spacers at some point when I have access to my friends lathe, Tony's idea is quite a good one.

Steve has posted today that "We’ll machine the Drive Casting undersize and provide shims to make up the difference. Hopefully this time we’ll supply the right ones in the right combination to suit most situations. So don’t panic "

Pre-painted bits.

With 3.5mm of shim!! Using only 3mm of shim made a surpising difference.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures but they are now being taken on my phone while I decide what to do about my camera that got wet in the Lake District over New Year.

Next kit will be the cleading as I missed that out to keep on with the good stuff, motion, gears etc.. I will also get Kit 24 at the same time and theother kit that went out early - I think it was kit 26, the one with the water pipes, clacks and the water gauge.

Looking forward to getting the tender on too, this will probably be done when I take the gears and motion off for paint/powder coating so it will look quite bare for a while. Also, this is when the cleading will be fitted and I do not know yet who or how those will be painted However, once everything is painted and back on it will look to be almost complete.

I am looking forward to the summer and our first steaming very much now, the end is definately in sight. This will be the first project I will have finished and steamed, my previous two efforts were both sold unfinishe for mostly financial reasons. Here is a picture of my first traction engine project, a 4" Foster from LSM when it was just a one man operation from his home - note that it is taken in our dining room were I was lucky enough to be able to store it there while we renovated our first house, a two up two down terraced house.

I have also been thinking about entering Blackbeard into his first rally, the Cheshire Steam Fair in July. It is feasible although not necesarily in steam and I will need to decide on the transport arrangements by then.

Cheers and happy building to everone who is following this, watch this space for the next installment.

Good interesting post Brian, welldone...................... Making up for Lynn not posting at the moment:D I wonder how she's getting on in Daventry?Or, more to the point, "how's Daventry getting on with her!!"regards,Tony

Tony King wrote:Good interesting post Brian, welldone...................... Making up for Lynn not posting at the moment:D I wonder how she's getting on in Daventry?Or, more to the point, "how's Daventry getting on with her!!"regards,Tony

I am doing fine. Don't have laptop with me as original digs did not have broadband. But I am not in the main building and this one does. I promise to do a wright up when I return. When you get the little do dad for the starting valve I spent today making 80 of them. Took 6 hours for that one small part. Yesterday was spent with Ian making parts for the winch drum. Cutting pins, bending the levers for the drive pin etc.

Cor Blimey Lynn, there's no stopping you.......... Missed you on the forum for 48 hours (or was it 24?)Sounds like you're having a great time down south. Well done in the factory! Will you be able to bring your own "next kit" home with you?Oh by the way, you've missed our summer while you've been gone, it's positively hot up here today.....hotest part of the UK two days running!! (Wipe sweating brow & open another cold beer!)You might have trouble getting back across the boarder if Brian gets there first!!! Safe journey back,Regards,Tony

come on you lazy git, I know you have been working on the engine and not just doing the house move and going to Germany finding unisex saunas in the black forest (and working). Lets see a picture of BB in its glory cladding on etc.

I am currently in Cornwall in a caravan waiting for the worst of the storm after first day of Cornwall Show with the Steam Yachts. It was interesting to say the least with the weather. Big Wheel closed, took all the cars off, Helter Skelter closed, wind was rocking it so hard it was strapped down to two trucks, Howard Bros Gallopers stopped for a while so they could remove a row of decorative boards before the wind did it for them - Steam Yachts continued regardless and surpisingly we were taking passengers from 9am to about 4PM

Your right though, I have been making progress and taking some pictures as I go - crank is red and back in as are eccentric straps, all crankshaft and second shaft gears fitted. Cylinder painted, gaskets made for cylinder covers, weighshaft bracket and slidebars plus lots of other bits powdercoated (black!). Cleading finally fitted and has now gone for powdercoating to try it out (dad has taken brass bands and a tin of Peak paste while we are on holiday so that they can be fitted as soon as cleading is back). Blast pip done, watergauge and blowdown valve fitted. Also, Sonic45 has finished painting my tender a deep gloss black and very good it looks too - better than his so he tells me

Travelling most of next week but if I get a chance one evening I will try an update the build thread. However, the next chunk of work should see cleading and tender fitted. I need to get the wheels on ready for moving too.

May not make Cheshire now either, it could be the moving weekend. No worries, we can have our own miniature engine rally in the front garden now. maybe I will suggest it one day

Cheers

Brian

PS: I saw Clive at Chipping Rally and told him I will bring Blackbeard to the Leigh Arms do to run alongside yours and Brian's engines - I look forward to that.

Well, I am never going to get the chance to do a detailed description of what I have been up to so I will get some photos on to bring this thread up to date!!!!!

Motion off again!!!

To finally add a bit of colour

Sonic has done a super job with my tender, now I just need to get my belly tank to him - he said it is better than his now

Finally got round to doing the cleading - BEFORE.....

AFTER!!!!!!!!!! (spot the blast pipe too!)

A little bit of detail, plate courtesy of Diane Carney - very fine!!

Water gauge was fun to do!

Need a bucket to catch the drips from the injector too!!!

Winch fitted, just need to get my differential gear guard finished and powder coated so I can fit the wheel for the final time. Intreresting that the brake block does not foul the rear wheel rivets on the LH side.

Looking Good there Brian. Did you put any PTFE in that gauge assembly?? Looks suspiciously clean to me, no tell tale ends?? If you haven't read my exploits of trying to get things sealed you might have to think about re-doing it, if so don't bother with tape, buy some liquid PTFE intead, much easier to apply and far far more effective.

I did use PTFE, lots of it so it was tight, I just made sure there is none sticking out. I have been following your expoits regaridng water p###ing out everywhere and I have since bought some sealing compound in case things don't work out. I already used it on some joints already - the injector valve connections to the header and steam pipe. In one other joint I used both!!

Got to say Brian, Nick's done a grand job of the tender....Okay Okay the rest of the engine looks really good as well, looking forward to seeing it at the Leigh Arms. From the conversations we should have 3 SL and 3 SM 4" Engines at the pub this year and 4 off them will be part of the STW collection.

Sorry I have been quiet on here for a while we have had a lot going on with the house move and then sorting out the new garage to take the workshop and moving my old workshop and the engines down to the new place. I have lost 3 months of my build/life with this in total so a little dissapointed that I have not had anything to report. We eventually moved on 17th August after being packed for around 5 weeks, luck was definately not with us as the solicitor for the buyer of our house went on holiday the night before he should have completed and transferred the money. Then my wife's car finally gave up the ghost as she collected the house keys from the estate agents in the nearby tonw so I had to rescue her and drag the car to a garage to be scrapped while the move was going on. The sofa people were wiating to deleiver the new suite at the new house when we eventually got there with the keys and when I went to the old hous the removal guys where just reversing into the drive - what a day that was. I even ended up moving our caravan late in the evneing in the dark and reversed it down the new long curved tree lined driveway for the first time in the dark and the rain

By the way, the number of our new house - 13!!!!!!!!!

Blackbeard only moved on 6th October and my 7 1/4" gauge loco moved the week after, I finally got the benches out and emptied the garage around three weeks ago. It took me a couple of weeks to get the benches fitted into the new garage, it did not go smoothly either as two apparently flat floors were no where near the same so a lot af buggering about to get it in the new place. Its amazing hom much stuff you can store under benches too, I did not know I had so much stuff.

I was especially annoyed at missing the Leigh Arms do in Cheshire where Brian M and Flashback would have been showing their engines. It was the first dry weekend we had and I ended up at the old house dismantling the shed and re-errecting it at at our new place and re-felting the roof.

Anyhow last Friday we had our first workshop evening in the new workshop although it was a little slow trying to get into the swing of things and choosing one thing to focus on, I eventually made a little progress. Refitted the slidebars and connected up the HP connecting rod. Dad got on with putting together the flywheel brake handle and rods after polishing what seemed like lathe power feed marks out of the bar. I have all the kits in the workshop to finish the engine as the flywheel arrived in August but I have not been able to fit it because when I got it out for the first time last week there was a 60mm x 40mm area of the running face that had not cleaned up when the casting was machined, looks like a sink hole in the surface and it is still about 1mm deep. I need to give Steve a call about this get it exchanged and also ask about the water pump status as I do dnot want to go to the trouble of building mine up if it will just squirt water in 10 different directions.

I still need to sort out the tight diff./wheel fit too, a skim off the RH drive casting will be the start, turning the machined boss down as Brian M has shown in his recent posting.

So here is Blackbeard being loaded onto a trailer for the first time.

At the front of our new house on a rare dry day!!!

Sonic's paint looking good outside even if the photo is not so good.

Hopefully I will have another workshop evening on Friday when I get back from Germany and get more bits done.

I have been meaning to upload one of these since my great neice visited before Christmas, since we took her on the Welshpool and Llanfair she has been steam mad and even put a traction engine on her letter to santa - got to start them early. I wonder when a Steam Apprentice Club membership would be an appropriate present - Onslow Park is her local rally and they do anapprentice driving day.